Moments In Time
by Kenny's SpaceCadet
Summary: Zuko is realizing, not for the first time, that he is incredibly angry, socially awkward, and unable to connect with people. Of course, this doesn’t stop the Gaang from doing their best to make him feel right at home. Set between TBR and TSR.


Summary: Zuko is realizing, not for the first time, that he is incredibly angry, socially awkward, and unable to connect with people. Of course, this doesn't stop the Gaang from doing their best to make him feel right at home. Set between TBR and TSR.

**Moments in Time**

**1**

"No! You're doing it all wrong!" Zuko yelled, causing Aang to stop what he was doing.

"What do you mean? You said to let out the fire kick when I let out my breath, which I was-"

"NOT DOING. Your form is all wrong and you are inhaling as you are trying to let out your fire! And for your information, inhaling is when you breathe air IN, which is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what you're supposed to be doing! Didn't you learn anything from the Sun Warriors?! Fire is your breath, it is life, and so it goes with your life force, which if you're inhaling, is GOING THE WRONG WAY. Do you WANT to implode? Do you WANT to have fire running through your body instead of at your enemy? Do you WANT to lose to the Fire Lord?? Do you-"

"You know, I think I understood after 'your form is wrong,'" Aang muttered quietly. He turned away from his recently new teacher. "I think I'll just turn in now… it's getting kind of late, and we've been practicing all day."

"What? Don't you walk away like that! I'm the teacher, and I'll decide when we're done!" Zuko exclaimed, his voice reverberating against the dilapidated walls of the Western Air Temple.

"Zuko, please, I really just want to go to bed," Aang pleaded.

"DO YOU THINK MY FATHER IS GOING TO LET YOU TAKE A NAP DURING THE MIDDLE OFYOUR BATTLE? HUH?"

"Zuko." The voice belonged to Katara, who had presumably heard the commotion and walked in. "Aang needs his rest. He won't learn any better tomorrow if he hasn't slept well tonight. C'mon Aang, let's get you into bed."

Aang collapsed against Katara's shoulder, letting her lead him out of the room and towards the main fire. Zuko collapsed on the ground in a squat, fuming. _Why isn't he learning? Why do I have to keep explaining simple things to him? Why is this so difficult? Why can't I control my anger? He's just a student, a beginner, and I'm trying to turn him into Azula._

"Zuko."

Katara had returned to stand behind Zuko. "What do you want," Zuko said bitterly, unable to mask his fury.

"Look, I understand that Aang can be a difficult pupil – believe me, I've taught him," Katara said. "He does whatever he wants, and often doesn't even bother listening to the expert instruction. One time, back when he was just learning water bending –"

"What is your point." Zuko was never one for small talk or silly anecdotes.

Katara coughed sheepishly. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that… you need to give him a little more time, and faith. He's young but he understands, so, you don't have to be so hard on him."

"You think I don't know that?!" Zuko turned his angry face towards Katara.

"Well, if you know that, why do you –"

"Because for some strange reason, I GET ANGRY VERY EASILY!" Zuko yelled. "Probably has nothing to do with the fact that the Fire Lord is my FATHER, my sister is at his beck and call and wants me dead, and the reason I don't have a mother is because my own DAD wanted to KILL ME! So excuse me for being an ANGRY person, but you're not going to change that, so just leave me alone before I do any more idiotic things and make you guys even MORE angry with me!" Zuko finished, turning away again to stare at the ground in mutinous silence.

"Don't you mean… LEAF you alone?" Katara said. Zuko, surprised at her joke, turned his head in time to see her grin. "None of us are angry with you, Zuko. We just want Aang to learn. And it's sad to see our friends fight with each other," she said, and then she walked out of the training area.

Zuko watched as the Water Tribe girl walked off, feeling somewhat uplifted. After Zuko and Sokka brought back her father from prison, she had been a little nicer to him, and although things were nowhere near perfect between the two benders, Katara had been making an effort to treat him at least somewhat better. Of course, she still skimped out on his food servings and taunted him, but her taunts were becoming more fun and less cruel, and Zuko could have sworn she had given him an extra pastry after dinner the night before. _These people are warming up to me, and this is how I repay them? By insulting their savior and working him to death, and yelling at everyone who comes into my path? I wish there was a way to change my actions, but sometimes, they're just reactions that are ground into my brain, reflexes which will be nearly impossible to change._

**2**

As Zuko took another bite of his vegetable soup, he appreciated the fact that he was having a safe and relatively nice meal with the Gaang, and that he was attending this meal as a friend. He was being included in conversation, Aang and Suki had both shot him smiles, and he hadn't been sent one glare by Katara the entire time. He was even almost full - a rare occurrence with the mighty hand of Katara being in charge of meal portions - and it would have been the perfect night, if not for…

"Let's tell ghost stories!"

…Sokka. That blasted Water Tribe peasant who wouldn't know obnoxious if it whacked him in the head with a rainbow elephant koi. Wearing pants.

"Sokka… remember the LAST time we told ghost stories? I ended up learning how to Bloodbend," said Katara disgustedly.

Sokka, Toph, and Aang all made disgusted noises. "That was NOT a good night," said Aang. "I almost killed Sokka!"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I would have kicked your butt, even when I had no control over my body," Sokka retorted, sounding cocky.

Zuko looked up from his food in surprise. "Does that mean what it sounds like?"

"Yeah, I was this close to actually slicing open Aang's throat when…"

"No, I mean, Bloodbending. Is it actually bending BLOOD?" Zuko asked curiously, and somewhat nervously. "How does that work?"

"Would you like a demonstration?" Katara asked coldly. It seemed she had taken offense to his words, for whatever reason.

"Wha- wait, I didn't mean it like-"

And suddenly, Zuko's arms were moving of their own accord. "What's happening to me?"

"What do you think?" Katara asked. Her voice sounded frightening, and Zuko was suddenly up on his feet, walking towards the EDGE OF THE CLIFF AND KATARA WAS ABOUT TO MAKE HIM WALK TO HIS OWN DEMISE AND HE HADN'T EVEN LOST HIS VIRGINITY YET AND _I DON'T WANT TO DIE!_

And then, at the very last second, Zuko had control again, so he fell on his butt and scuttled away from the edge. He turned around and looked wildly at Katara, not sure what to make of the powerful bender. The rest of the Gaang looked horrified, mirroring the expression Zuko was sure was adorning his own face.

"Katara, what the hell was that?" Sokka finally broke the silence.

"Well Sokka, as you can see, Sweetness sensed a very imminent danger coming from Sparky, so she figured it would be best to ALMOST KILL HIM before he killed us… with his CURIOSITY," Toph said, sounding very angry.

Zuko got to his feet, not sure if he should say anything. Toph sounded angry, and although her words had sounded venomous towards Katara, he was sure there must have been SOME sort of insult towards him in there… somewhere… he was _Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, heir to the throne on which Fire Lord Ozai currently sits, who has tried to kill the Gaang too many times to count, and who burned Toph's feet by ACCIDENT… among all of his other sins, which could fill a long book… _Yeah. There was no way Toph, or any of the rest of them, would stand up for him completely… would they?

"Zuko, I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… lose control…" Katara said, suddenly sounding very ashamed of herself.

"It's… it's okay, I think I'll just head to bed," Zuko muttered. "I'm sorry for asking."

But, Zuko couldn't resist – after he'd stepped into the hall, he eavesdropped long enough to hear, "That was MESSED UP, Katara," from Aang. "Yeah, what made you do something like that?" Suki asked. For some reason which Zuko couldn't quite begin to fathom, the Gaang's concern for his wellbeing made him very, very happy.

**3**

"Hey, do you want to ACTUALLY go fishing?"

Zuko looked up from his scroll, on which he was trying to illustrate a complex set of motions for Aang to practice. It was the morning after the Bloodbending incident, and Zuko had not talked to any of his team mates until now. "Wha-what do you mean by that?" asked Zuko, always on the defensive.

Sokka gave him a look that clearly said, _What else could I possibly mean by that? _"Uhm, last time we went on a 'fishing trip,' we ended up staying for days at a high-security Fire Nation prison and coming back with my Dad and Suki. I was wondering if you want to go on an ACTUAL fishing trip, so we can get some much-needed MEAT!"

"You want me to come with you?" Zuko said, still not sure he quite understood what Sokka was asking him.

"Where in this conversation have I mentioned ME going?"

Zuko didn't catch the sarcasm, and as he replayed Sokka's words, he noticed that Sokka really had only said, 'Do YOU want to go fishing?' "I see. Well, I'm a little busy, but I can go in a little while. Where do you want me to go? How many fish should I catch? Will you lend me a fishing pole? In fact, I think I am going to need everything, except for the bait, because I can just shoot down some flies on the way there with Firebending and… what is that look for?!" Sokka was looking at him with incredulity, which Zuko interpreted to mean, _What the hell is wrong with you, don't you know anything about fishing? _Of course, Zuko was pretty certain he hadn't said anything incredibly inaccurate, so it frustrated him that Sokka was looking at him like that. "I just agreed to do a much-needed favor for the entire group, but if you think I'll be so BAD at it, why don't you go instead?!"

"I was… teasing you. About me not going. I wouldn't ask you to go by yourself, Zuko. I was inviting you with me." Sokka looked somewhat concerned and sad, and he certainly didn't sound very upbeat.

"Why do you sound so UNHAPPY?" Zuko asked, completely misconstruing the entire situation. "If it makes you so miserable for me to come with you, why invite me? Why bother? I wouldn't have even noticed that you had gone without me, and I wouldn't have even thought to think that maybe you might have invited me too –"

"Goddamnit. Haven't you EVER had a friend before?" Sokka said out of the blue.

"Why of… course… well. I mean. I grew up with Mai and Ty Lee, and… well, there was Azula, and… of course I've had friends, you silly peasant!" _What the hell did I just say? _"I mean, not… peasant… more like, lower-middle class traveler." _THAT'S NOT BETTER! _"Er, what I meant to say is…"

Sokka grinned. "It's okay, Mr. Fancy Pants Prince. I'll forgive you if you make sure to catch us a LOT of bait on the way to the river."

**4**

When Zuko approached her, she was bending earth into flat rocks and skipping them in the fountain water. Zuko moved toward Toph quietly, not wanting to cause her to lose her concentration. That is, until an unforeseen rock caused Zuko to fall flat on his face behind the Earthbender, in a somewhat ungraceful way. "Oof!"

"What are you doing sneaking up on me?" Toph asked, with malice in her voice. _I forgot that she's blind, and sees things with her feet. Of course she would have heard me, and so of course I broke her concentration. Bet she tripped me too._

"I apologize for breaking your concentration. I had forgotten that you would be able to feel me coming," Zuko said quietly, taking a seat on the edge of the pond with Toph.

"Well? What do you want? I'm kinda busy."

Zuko looked across the fountain at a neat pile of skipping stones that Toph had made. She sure looked busy. "I can see that. I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

"How much?"

"Sorry… what?"

"How much are ya gonna pay me?" Toph asked, sounding completely serious. "I don't just dole out favors for free, Sparky. I need a little compensation."

Zuko was startled. "Uhm… I didn't really think of that…"

"I see." She went back to skipping rocks.

"Well, what do you want?" Zuko asked, trying not to let the irritation kick in.

"I want money."

"I don't have any money!"

"Tough luck, buddy," she said, not once turning to face him.

"But, you don't even know what the favor is! It's going to be very easy for you to do," Zuko persisted.

"It doesn't matter how easy it is for me, I still want something from it. Out of curiosity though, what do you want?"

"I was wondering if you could make me a desk out of rock. I have been writing a lot of stuff for Aang to read lately, and it would be easier for me to have a desk on which to write things for him. There is no flat surface here but the ground."

Toph continued bending flat rocks and skipping them without a word. Zuko counted to ten inside his mind (a trick learned from Uncle that really didn't do anything) and then decided to continue. "I would be very honored if you were to do this for me. I don't have any money, but maybe, I can owe you one?"

"OWE me one? I think not."

"Well, more than one. How about once we defeat the Fire Lord, I'll give you ten gold pieces?" Zuko tried.

"Why after? I might be dead after, and then that won't help me at all. Or is that what you are planning? Promise to pay me after but then make sure I don't come out of it alive?"

Zuko was horrified. "No! I absolutely, definitely did NOT mean that! I just meant that at that point I would be able to access a bit of my family's money."

"Then I want more than ten gold pieces!" Toph said. She sounded very petulant, like a young child. "I bet you guys have hundreds of thousands of gold pieces! I will only be satisfied if you give me one hundred."

"A HUNDRED?"

"Yes."

"I can't do that," Zuko said quietly.

"Why not?" She didn't sound too happy.

"Because, I'm only going to have ten gold pieces to my name. That is all that is left for me in the Fire Lord's will. The rest goes to Azula. She's getting like 500,000 or something crazy like that. My father thinks it will be more humiliating for me to get so few than for me to get none at all."

They didn't speak for a moment. Finally, Zuko's impatience caught up with him. "Well? Is ten enough? I know you can do a lot with ten gold pieces, Toph!"

"You would give me the only money you have so that I will build you a DESK?" Toph asked. She looked baffled. "Why?"

"Because then I can write more scrolls for Aang to study! I told you already!"

Suddenly, Toph started laughing. But, it wasn't a very happy laugh. Zuko felt defensive all of a sudden. "Why are you laughing like that? I don't think this is funny!"

"Yeah, me neither! You're actually proposing giving me essentially the rest of your life so that I will help you teach Aang how to Firebend. Ah ha ha ha! This isn't funny. This is downright SAD!"

"Fine, whatever! I didn't really care if you helped me or not anyway!" Zuko yelled, getting up to storm off.

"Don't even think about leaving Sparky! We haven't finished our deal. I have decided to change the conditions."

Zuko sat back down. "Yes?" _What will it be? Will she want me to carry her around all the time? Will she make me do something humiliating? Will she ask for more than ten gold pieces but have me pay it back to her in payments? Will she say NO?_

"I have decided: I will make you a desk, and in exchange, you clean out Appa's toes when it comes time to give him his bath. It's supposed to be my turn next."

"That's… it?"

Toph gave him as serious of a look as a blind person could. "Zuko, you're going to be wishing I'd accepted the offer of gold."

**5**

"ISN'T THIS GREAT?"

Zuko was pretty certain he was about to puke. "A-Aang," he said weakly, not trusting his voice.

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR OVER THE WIND, ZUKO!"

_This sounded like fun at first, but boy was I wrong…_ Zuko was experiencing firsthand terrible motion sickness coupled with an intense fear that he was about to die. Aang had decided that Zuko should come on a trip with him in his glider, and at first, Zuko had been excited and a little honored that Aang would want to do something with him purely for the sake of fun. But now… Zuko was ready to stop. But he couldn't open his mouth, or he would surely vomit.

"YOU ALRIGHT UP THERE, BUDDY?"

Zuko said nothing.

"AWESOME! HEY, LOOK, THERE'S A SPIDER MONKEY FAMILY OVER ON THAT CLIFF TOP! LET'S GO MEET THEM!"

_I'd rather fly around longer than go meet a family of Spider Monkeys._

They landed softly, and Zuko scrambled off of Aang's back as quickly as possible. If he hadn't been on top of the Avatar, he'd have definitely barfed. As it were, now that he was off, he ran to the edge of the cliff, bent over, and let it all out.

"Are you alright, Zuko?"

"What does it look like?!" Zuko responded, his hands balanced on his knees. Then, he vomited again. Aang walked up to his side and patted him on the back. "There now, buddy. Next time I won't do so many flips."

Zuko made to get back in a standing position – but, as soon as he stood, he felt dizzy. "I don't feel so good," he said, trying to take a step away from the cliff's edge. But, for all his training in balance and poise, Ex-Crown Prince Zuko lost his footing and stepped off of the cliff.

_Holy shit, what did I just do? Am I seriously going to fall down this cliff because I was too stupid to keep my balance? Scratch that, I'm already falling, so yes, I am falling because I was too stupid to keep my balance. Oh God. I'm going to die, I really AM going to die before losing my virginity, and I'm never going to get to see my father taken down, and Azula and I will never have a duel to the death where I show her who's boss, and I won't get a chance to tell Aang he's actually doing a pretty good job with Firebending no matter how hard I am on him, and I won't get to tell Sokka that he's like a brother to me, and I won't get to tell Toph –_

"Gotcha!"

Zuko felt his arm jerk as he was grabbed out of midair by the flying air nomad. "Th-thanks," he muttered. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to him that Aang would come after him.

"No problem! Couldn't have my favorite Firebender falling to his death!" Aang said, his natural optimism and charm coming through in his words.

"Aang, I never told you that you're doing well at Firebending," Zuko said, hoping that surprising words wouldn't make Aang drop him again. "I'm always really hard on you, I realize that, but you're actually learning way faster than even Azula did."

"Wow! Thanks Zuko! That makes me happy," Aang said brightly.

Upon landing on the cliff top again, Aang and Zuko realized that the family of Spider Monkeys had disappeared. "Aww!" said Aang despondently. "They must have gotten frightened by the commotion."

Although Zuko had definitely not cared about seeing the Spider Monkeys, he felt a little guilty for their disappearance for Aang's sake. It had been his fault that they had gotten frightened, after all. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Don't be! I've seen enough Spider Monkeys in my lifetime anyway. I'm more glad that I get to spend time with you!"

The words shocked Zuko. "Er, what?"

Aang just grinned, but did not repeat himself. "It is a beautiful day," he said, flopping onto his back so that he could stare at some clouds. "Want to watch the clouds with me? There are some awesome shapes around here."

Zuko wordlessly complied, lying down next to Aang to observe the sky. "Well? Where are these shapes?" he asked.

"You have to be patient Zuko. They won't appear instantly. Cloud watching is an exercise of relaxation and healing, but it only works if you're willing to stick around a while."

Zuko inwardly grumbled. He didn't see anything in the sky, and he wasn't sure what Aang saw in this entire situation. _Stupid clouds. Stupid Spider Monkeys. Stupid Avatar. What the hell am I doing with these people._

It seemed like forever had passed when suddenly Aang gasped. "Look Zuko! It's Momo!" Aang's finger was pointed at a particularly lumpy cloud with two large pillars which could be considered ears sticking off the top of it.

"I don't see it," Zuko said. "It just looks like a cloud."

Aang turned his head to give Zuko a dirty look. "You need to learn to think outside of the box. Sure, it's a cloud, but there is so much more to it."

Zuko felt chagrined at Aang's castigation. "Alright, I'll try."

Over the next fifteen minutes, Aang would periodically point out shapes that he saw. "It's Appa!" "A cabbage!" "Lightning!" "Ew, that one looks like Katara's vegetable soup." "A FROZEN FROG!"

"What was the deal with the frogs?" Zuko suddenly asked.

"Uh, what do you mean? Do you mean the frog in the cloud?"

"No. Back when you were captured by Zhao and I…" _I can't say 'rescued'. _"Broke you out. Why did you have a bunch of half-frozen frogs with you?"

"Oh. Sokka and Katara were sick. The herbalist told me to have them suck on frogs that were frozen at the bottom of that pond, so, I was in the middle of getting frozen frogs for Sokka and Katara to suck on when those archers came after me."

"Oh. I see."

"Woah! Do you see the swamp monster up there?"

"Aang, I never answered your question. Yes, I think we could have been."

Aang looked thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about now?"

Zuko turned away from Aang. "When you saved my life that first time. You asked me if we could have ever been friends. I was stupid, and I shot a fire ball at you. But the real answer was yes, and I think I knew it all along. And all I've done since is be mean, set things on fire, chase you, set a couple more things on fire, betray your trust, and then now I've forced you to save my life again. I'm really bad at being good, and I don't know how to change."

"Zuko, you have changed." Aang suddenly didn't sound so full of humor and fun. He was being serious. "The Zuko I first met was angry, bitter, and so full of hatred that he wouldn't even imagine the possibility that maybe someone besides his father was right. Now, you are actually training the Avatar so that you can restore the honor to the Fire Nation that has been squandered by your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. You've changed from a selfish young man who just wanted to do what would help him restore his own honor, but you have grown up enough to realize that honor doesn't come from pleasing other people, but by doing the right thing, even though it might be hard."

Zuko wasn't sure what to say to that. He turned his body to face the Avatar, master of all four elements, wise and strong, and only twelve years old. "But I've made so many mistakes, and it took me so long to get on the right path. You, Sokka, Katara, and everyone else here are all the real honorable people, because you were doing the right thing all along."

And then Aang gave him a solemn look. "Do you think I haven't made mistakes too? I abandoned the world for one hundred years because I was too immature to accept my responsibility as the Avatar."

"You were twelve. No one could be expected to take on such a responsibility," Zuko muttered.

"You've had some unfair responsibilities placed on you as well, Zuko," said Aang, "And from those burdens a strong, honorable man has grown. Although you've made some wrong choices, it's not about those choices anymore. It's about what you do with the knowledge they gave you and how you work through them. You haven't done anything irreparable, nothing that can't be fixed by you helping me defeat Fire Lord Ozai. And believe me – you have helped." Aang turned to face the sky again, a small fire dancing around in his upturned palm. Zuko didn't know what to say. No one had ever been so grateful for him before. "Oh, and one other thing," Aang said, extinguishing his fire and turning to face Zuko once more. "When I saved your life today, I wasn't thinking about Firebending at all."

For a long time, the two laid in silence, staring up at the clouds. Then, suddenly, Zuko cried, "Look! It's Combustion Man!"

Aang's bright laughter had been unexpected. Zuko looked toward Aang in surprise, and Aang looked at him happily. "See? I told you there were pictures up there!"

**End**


End file.
